life after college.

well for all of you youngens who are still in college, let me give you a glimpse of what life is going to be like when you are out of there.

you make friends in high school, then you all go your separate ways and go on to college, and make new friends (and some are lucky enough to keep the old too) and then everyone graduates and gets jobs and then starts yet another chapter of life. and you have to make new friends...

while working. while cooking dinner every night. while paying bills. while doing all this other stuff that you forget about when you live in the bubble of college life, where everyone lives within 5 minutes of each other, and where you are only in class (if you even go) for like..not that long.

and then all the sudden, you have to adjust to working 40 hours a week..in a cube or office or whatever. and you realize that college didn't even prepare you for what you are doing now. you don't have any guidelines or due dates, you just do stuff. and you get stuff done if you know how or not..you just figure it out.

and in college, you forget that there are people older and wiser that are not professors.. and all the sudden they become your co-workers. and you are trying to juggle making new relationships while keeping up with your friends from the past..and it is hard. it is exhausting. but worth it.

i guess, just be prepared..life is hard. and its easy to think "oh after college, i will get a job, and all my friends will get jobs, and we will live by each other and it will be so great". because it doesn't really happen like that- people go where there is work- and even Kansas City is big enough not to see some of the people you love the most!

but don't fret- if i can make new friends- so can you! it has been an adventure, starting new with people- explaining salad bowl to them and see friendships forming right there! and getting involved in a church that is close has been incredible. and i am looking forward to all the relationships that will come from that- and all that God is going to teach me (and has taught me already).

and then i start thinking..ok, in 7 months, i will find myself unemployed. i will have the opportunity to go anywhere--but by that time will I want to? it seems so exciting to go somewhere big and fun..but then if i didn't know anyone there- wouldn't i get so lonely? would i want to have to start fresh and find new friends again? it's hard to do! so I can't think about it. I just have to trust that God has a plan for me, and it will work out in the end..and if it is hard, i will just have to remember "that in all things, God works for the good of those who love them" (Romans 8:28).

so, my advice friends- be prepared to make new friends, to start new relationships, and adjust to working. it's tough..and at first i was exhausted and just came home and felt like i would never have enough energy.. but you get over that and find yourself just as busy as you were in college.

and i'm sure once i have made all these new friends, God will throw something at me that I would have never seen coming--but that's why he is so great. because it will be exactly what i need.

adventure.

so this whole year, i have been saying that i want an adventure for when i graduate. go somewhere, somewhere fun, exciting, full of unknowns and new people. but what i am slowly learning is that God has had me on an adventure this whole year.

i have lived with incredible girls, and gone through crazy times. fun times, where we laugh and dance, and horrible times where we cry and are mad. i have been on an emotional roller coaster the past couple of weeks because i don't know how to deal with all this chance, especially because i don't have change yet. i don't have a job, i don't have school, i just have me. and that is an adventure. I need to slow down, listen to God and figure out what he is telling me. and my idea of going somewhere new and crazy is looking more and more like it won't happen. but i'm okay with that.

i wanted so bad to do something that no one expected, move somewhere where i had this awesome job and start this new life. but do i want a new life? new friends? if there has been one thing God has consistently given me throughout my life, its good friends. Why would I run from that? Why would I just say, Oh thanks God, but i can find good friends in another city....no. i love my friends, i would be SO sad without them. and they are mostly living in Kansas City. so its looking more and more like that could be an adventure.

living in KC, not in southern joco. because i would rather live in a box then move back to southern joco...thats been my whole life. give me a cute little old apartment with character in downtown KC. give me my own space there. let me have an adventure. that way i can experience this adventure with my friends. people i love. people i am comfortable with. we can have an adventure together.

and maybe God has something great planned for me in KC. i'll just have to wait and see i guess. In his time he will tell me. i just hope it is soon. because it has been summer officially for like one day. and i got bored...maybe someone* is rubbing off on me.

*this someone gets restless and bored very easily, which is one of the things i like most about him.